I recently gave a short presentation to a group of friends to introduce them to the joys of travel hacking. I’d like to share the materials with the rest of you here. Do let me know if you spot any typos or mistakes, I’m sure there will be some in there.
Also, travel hacking is a dynamic game- as time goes on the information here will get less and less relevant. Be sure to check back often for all the latest!
You can get the slides here– feel free to share them with your friends!
Hello! Great information you have here. I’ve 2 questions:
1) Between the UOB Preferred Platinum Visa and the DBS Woman’s World MasterCard, which is better for online transactions? My main purchases are overseas online transactions such as Taobao and Groupon.
2) Can you recommend the card to charge my recurring Prudential (or other insurance) bills to that rewards the most miles? I am unsure between the DBS Altitude Visa and DBS Woman’s World Mastercard or if there is a better option?
3) I can’t seem to find the information on DBS Altitude Amex’s 50% bonus miles. Is this promotion still valid? Is it still worth to get this card then, as I currently own the Visa.
Hi Neal! Thanks for reading
1) I would go for DBS Woman’s World Mastercard if your income allows you to get it. Reason being that DBS is much less strict about what constitutes an online transaction. If you look at this link- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiJ5a9GayhmKdGhZbWNVQXQ1T3k4OWJKNWpNWDFwZmc&usp=sharing#gid=0
you can see that in general DBS has a more liberal interpretation of online. Of course UOB PPV has a 30K min income vs DBS 80K, but like i said min incomes are more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule
2) DBS has a scheme which allows you to earn points on recurring bill payments (https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/card-services/dbs-recurring-bill-payment). Prudential is listed there. You’d be looking at 1.2 miles for your DBS altitude visa (which is short of the 1.4 that ANZ Travel and UOB PRVI miles earn- if you have a UOB card you can do it with UOB’s equivalent scheme -http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards/payment/bill_payment_service.html). I suspect that DBS Woman’s card will not earn 4 miles on this.
3) DBS Altitude AMEX 50% bonus is still on till the end of the month- act fast. https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/promotion/dbs-altitude-american-express-card-promo You need to apply by the end of this month and then you’ll get 50% bonus on all spend for 6 months
let me know if this helps!
Thank you for the insights!
Hi, great website! I’m relatively new to the miles game so all these info have been very helpful and informative.
One question on the recurring bill payments for Prudential, and for insurance payments in general. I have the UOB PRVI Miles MC, and I had been using it to pay for my Prudential monthly payments for a few months. I did this using the credit card payment authorisation form directly to Prudential. However, I realised that I wasn’t getting miles for these transactions, and when I called UOB to ask, they explained that bill payments don’t qualify for miles under their T&C.
So my question: will using UOB’s own Bill Pay Service be different? On their website, it says “UNI$ will be awarded to those who sign up with any of the participating merchants except for United Overseas Insurance.”, but I’m a bit wary especially when it comes to UOB.
Other than Prudential, do you know of any way to pay for NTUC Income and AXA premiums using credit cards? The insurance companies themselves don’t accept credit card payments.
Thanks!
Hi Jon- thanks for reading!
You’re right, recurring bill payments do not qualify for miles or points. What you need to do is use the UOB bill pay service- http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards/payment/bill_payment_service.html If you use this service, you will earn points on your card.I believe UOB’s bill payment service covers NTUC income as well. Unfortunately, I don’t think AXA premiums can be covered this way. It states quite clearly in their T&C for bill payment service that you’ll earn UNI$, so I wouldn’t be too worried about going that route.
I’ll see if i can find any way to get AXA paid via credit card
Hi Aaron, any findings on using which cc to pay for AXA insurance premiums?
Hello alvin! sorry for the delay in my reply. to my knowledge AXA is not covered under either UOB or DBS’s bill payment services (http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/cards/payment/bill_payment_service.html#) (https://www.dbs.com.sg/personal/cards/card-services/dbs-recurring-bill-payment) so unfortunately no. I think only Prudential has this tie up for miles earning